Amazing Grace

00:17.380-00:19.960 Amazing Grace 00:20.420-00:29.940 How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me 00:31.780-00:39.280 I once was lost, but now I'm found 00:39.960-00:45.540 Was blind, but now I see 00:47.219-00:51.620 Hello again. This is Dick Foth with Stories from the Road. 00:52.760-00:54.620 And I have a story for you this time. 00:55.600-00:59.100 I think I have stories all the time, but this is a good one. 01:00.560-01:05.180 Her name was Elizabeth, and she lived with her husband in London, 01:05.960-01:11.960 Wapping is a community in the Docklands, down where merchant ships would come in. 01:12.240-01:15.060 It's in what they call the East End of London. 01:15.400-01:17.080 East Enders, working class people. 01:18.160-01:27.680 And it was there on this day, July 24th, 1725, that she had a baby boy. 01:28.640-01:29.540 His name was John. 01:31.060-01:34.460 And John was the apple of her eye. 01:35.340-01:36.660 She was a religious person. 01:36.970-01:39.040 She was a person of faith, Elizabeth was. 01:39.680-01:45.560 Her husband was a seafaring merchant and pretty much an irreligious man. 01:46.940-01:55.060 But for seven years, she brought up John, her boy, to know scriptures. 01:55.660-02:00.400 She, from a denominational background, she was what they call a congregationalist. 02:02.320-02:09.479 and steeped in scripture and she would teach him scriptures and teach him songs and expose him to 02:09.660-02:16.800 hymn writers of the day like a fellow named Isaac Watts and little John apparently liked all that 02:17.240-02:25.200 so he was at his mother's knee for seven years and then she suddenly died and he was bereft 02:27.440-02:34.640 But that information and that formation of his mother in those first seven years was imprinted deep in him. 02:36.200-02:39.640 Let me just put a parenthesis here and say this. 02:40.180-02:46.740 From a child development point of view, the first seven years of a child's life in terms of brain development is critical. 02:47.220-02:50.500 By the age of two, you have 80% of your adult brain. 02:51.220-03:00.639 In that next five years, when you're learning language and you have social development and logical thinking and all of that, you gain 15%. 03:01.180-03:08.740 So by the time you're seven years old, you have essentially 95% of your brain. 03:09.280-03:12.660 You don't get the full 100% until you're 25. 03:14.000-03:16.480 So those first views are really critical. 03:16.920-03:20.580 Well, when his mom died, John was in the care of his father. 03:20.860-03:23.380 His father quickly remarried, had several other children. 03:24.280-03:27.140 And when he was 11, his father took him to sea. 03:28.180-03:31.220 And so he spent his teen years, his early teen years particularly, 03:32.160-03:35.280 with his father on merchant ships in very difficult circumstances. 03:35.880-03:38.700 His father was a very strict disciplinarian. 03:39.540-03:43.620 But in his teenage years, through a series of circumstances that I won't go into here, 03:45.760-03:48.600 was in a very debauched state. 03:49.330-03:51.620 Even though he had these early seven years 03:51.960-03:55.560 with this spiritual upbringing and influences in his life, 03:56.080-04:00.140 the testings of the teenage years were a lot for him. 04:00.220-04:03.940 He ended up being caught by an impressment gang. 04:04.350-04:06.540 The British Navy used to have gangs that would go out 04:06.540-04:08.740 and just grab young men with seafaring background 04:09.440-04:11.420 and put them in the Navy, and he did that. 04:11.470-04:14.960 But he was the most rebellious, anti-authoritarian. 04:15.160-04:17.640 He would make up bawdy songs about the captains. 04:18.100-04:20.120 He would be flogged and all of that. 04:20.700-04:27.920 And one day, he ended up begging to be put on a merchant ship that happened to be in the slave trade. 04:28.600-04:33.320 Long story short, he ended up going to Africa, being in the slave trade for some time. 04:34.180-04:43.700 But also, he was sold to an African empress on a place called Plantation Island off Sierra Leone in the hump of Africa. 04:44.420-04:46.120 And it was a terrible time for him. 04:46.860-04:49.500 And he almost died there, severe health issues. 04:49.680-04:50.840 He became a slave himself. 04:51.780-04:55.340 And he was able to write some letters, and one of them got to his father, 04:55.520-04:56.560 even though they weren't close. 04:57.020-05:01.800 His father sent a friend, was captain of a ship by the name of the Greyhound, 05:02.440-05:05.720 and found him and brought him back to England. 05:05.840-05:09.640 And they were caught in a storm when John was 23. 05:10.340-05:13.540 So we're going from age 7 to age 23. 05:13.860-05:17.440 You're going from 1725 to 1748. 05:18.280-05:22.900 And those years after seven were just horrific years for him, 05:23.500-05:27.840 both in terms of the impact and his own infidelity as a person. 05:27.880-05:30.380 He was a debauched young man. 05:38.480-05:40.140 But in a storm on the Irish Sea, 05:42.020-05:43.500 when the ship was coming apart, 05:44.440-05:50.060 he came to an initial statement of faith when he called out, Lord, have mercy on him. 05:50.220-05:54.640 Those of you who know this story have by now guessed that it was John Newton. 05:55.580-06:00.120 And John Newton, although a miserable outcast, as someone has said, 06:01.220-06:07.000 found himself later becoming captain of a ship, a slave ship, actually. 06:07.860-06:15.740 And it's this fascinating thing where they separated out what they were doing in the trade from one's personal life. 06:15.840-06:25.020 And as he started growing in his own faith, he became what is called a well-paid surveyor of tides in Liverpool when his health didn't hold up for him to be at sea anymore. 06:26.240-06:28.420 And later on, he felt like he was called to ministry. 06:29.300-06:37.400 And he became an Anglican pastor, first in a small congregation in a town called Olney. 06:37.840-06:39.040 and later in London. 06:39.940-06:42.600 And he did that for 43 years of his life. 06:43.180-06:47.020 He had married the girl of his dreams when he was 24 06:47.400-06:49.120 after his experience on the Irish Sea 06:49.960-06:53.940 and became a devoted husband to his wife Mary for 40 years 06:54.700-06:56.420 until she died in 1790. 06:57.580-07:00.260 He was a personal friend to William Wilberforce 07:00.320-07:02.820 who championed the abolishment of the slave trade 07:03.200-07:04.200 and also slavery. 07:05.020-07:07.400 He became a friend to William Carey 07:07.420-07:09.420 sort of considered the father of modern missions, 07:09.690-07:11.640 John Wesley, the great evangelist, 07:11.670-07:13.580 George Whitefield, the great evangelist. 07:14.180-07:17.100 And finally, in his years as a pastor, 07:17.150-07:21.220 he started writing poems that often then had hymns, 07:22.280-07:24.360 lyrics that had melodies put to them. 07:24.880-07:27.360 And he is, as you know, most of you would know, 07:27.620-07:30.020 the author of the song Amazing Grace. 07:31.100-07:33.620 He died on December 21st, 1807. 07:33.880-07:40.280 And in 1807 was the year that the slave trade was abolished in Great Britain. 07:42.560-07:47.580 He's famous for that, for one song called Amazing Grace. 07:48.160-07:52.380 Amazing Grace for us, especially after the tragedies of 9-11, 07:53.400-07:58.320 where bagpipes played that song at so many memorial and funeral services. 07:59.000-08:02.240 It's almost like a second national anthem here in the United States. 08:04.300-08:12.960 but the idea of grace is a theme in john newton's life that just pervades what he wrote what he 08:13.180-08:21.240 talked about how he acted in his book phil yancey who authored what's so amazing about grace in his 08:21.480-08:27.000 book he says this about a movie called the last emperor the young child the last emperor china 08:28.140-08:32.700 anointed as the last emperor of China lives a magical life of luxury with a thousand eunuch 08:32.919-08:39.340 servants at his command. What happens when you do wrong his brother asks. When I do wrong someone 08:39.530-08:46.280 else is punished the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate he breaks a jar and one of the 08:46.620-08:53.480 servants is beaten. Jesus comes along and reverses that ancient pattern Yancey says 08:54.320-08:59.020 when the servants erred or did wrong, the king was punished. 09:00.280-09:06.700 Grace is free only because the giver himself has borne the cost. 09:09.040-09:17.980 This idea that Jesus loves me in a way that precedes however I love him back, 09:18.000-09:22.060 if I can put it that way, is captured again. 09:22.240-09:26.520 Yancey reflects on a story Brennan Manning, another author tells. 09:26.820-09:30.020 Brennan Manning himself is a former priest. 09:30.580-09:34.800 And he tells the story of an Irish priest who on a walking tour of a rural parish 09:35.520-09:38.460 sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road praying. 09:39.400-09:40.520 He was impressed by that. 09:40.900-09:45.920 And the priest says to the man, you must be very close to God. 09:47.180-09:51.180 The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles. 09:52.200-09:56.500 and says, yes, he's very fond of me. 09:58.580-10:00.100 I love that thought. 10:00.920-10:03.360 I love the idea that here is the God 10:04.060-10:06.740 who comes after us with his grace. 10:08.360-10:10.880 And he lays down the gauntlet of grace, 10:11.280-10:14.960 throws it down, if you will, and says, how about that? 10:38.400-10:41.440 Just to wrap this brief podcast up 10:42.880-10:55.360 It wasn't long ago that Bill Moyer's journalist, well known over the years for both his journalism and his faith journey, passed away. 10:56.660-11:06.380 And Bill Moyer's documentary film, again Yancey says, was on a hymn, Amazing Grace, and includes a scene filmed in Wembley Stadium in London. 11:07.400-11:15.500 Various musical groups had gathered together, rock bands had gathered together to celebrate some positive things that were going on in South Africa years ago. 11:16.800-11:24.260 And for some reason, they had asked Jesse Norman, African-American opera singer, to be the closing act. 11:25.700-11:30.720 And so these bands are just ramping things up, bands like Guns N' Roses. 11:30.830-11:33.200 Some of you would remember that band from years back. 11:33.340-11:38.040 They blasted the crowd through banks of speakers riling up fans, Yancey says, 11:38.480-11:39.880 already high on booze and dope. 11:40.480-11:43.600 The crowd yells for more curtain calls and the rock groups obliged. 11:43.900-11:48.800 Meanwhile, Jesse Norman sits in her dressing room discussing Amazing Grace with Moyers. 11:49.580-11:52.980 The hymn was written, of course, by John Newton, a coarse, cruel slave trader. 11:53.880-11:57.320 He first called out to God in the midst of a storm that nearly threw him overboard, 11:58.080-12:02.139 came to see the light only gradually, continuing to apply his trade 12:02.160-12:07.660 even after his conversion. He wrote the song, quote, how sweet the name of Jesus sounds, end quote, 12:08.120-12:13.780 while waiting in an African harbor for a shipment of slaves. It boggles one's mind to think about 12:13.940-12:19.920 that, except it shows how the grace of God works incrementally in our lives. Later, though, he 12:20.060-12:23.980 renounced his profession, became a minister, joined William Wilberforce in the fight against 12:24.680-12:30.059 slavery. John Newton never lost sight of the depths from which he had been lifted, never lost sight 12:30.420-12:36.840 of grace, even though in his later years he actually was blind. And when he wrote that 12:37.040-12:44.240 saved a wretch like me, he meant those words with all his heart. I love this part. In the film, 12:44.480-12:49.100 Jesse Norman tells Bill Moyers that Newton may have borrowed an old tune sung by the slaves 12:49.300-12:56.079 themselves, redeeming the song, just as he had been redeemed. And finally, the time comes for 12:56.100-13:01.120 her to sing. A single circle of light follows Norman, a majestic African-American woman, 13:01.620-13:07.400 wearing a flowing African dashiki as she strolls on stage. No backup and no musical instruments, 13:07.760-13:13.620 just Jesse. The crowd stirs, restless few recognize the opera diva. A voice yells for 13:13.620-13:20.640 more guns and roses. Others take up the cry. The scene is getting ugly. Alone, a cappella, 13:21.680-13:24.420 Jesse Norman begins to sing very slowly. 13:26.020-13:31.600 Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 13:32.460-13:34.720 I once was lost, but now am found. 13:35.660-13:37.240 Was blind, but now I see. 13:38.360-13:41.180 A remarkable thing happens in Wembley Stadium that night. 13:41.270-13:45.100 Several thousand raucous fans fall silent before her aria of grace. 13:45.960-13:47.880 By the time Norman reaches the second verse, 13:47.890-13:49.940 t'was grace that taught my heart to fear. 13:50.640-13:52.600 And grace, my fear's relieved. 13:53.480-13:55.400 Soprano has the crowd in her hands. 13:55.520-13:57.440 By the time she reaches the third verse, 13:58.160-14:00.520 "'Tis grace has brought me safe this far, 14:00.920-14:02.560 and grace will lead me home." 14:02.680-14:05.100 Several thousand fans are singing along, 14:05.580-14:08.240 digging far back in lost memories 14:09.400-14:11.720 for words they heard long ago. 14:12.100-14:13.660 Maybe when they were seven. 14:14.180-14:15.140 That's both right there. 14:15.920-14:18.120 When we've been there 10,000 years, 14:18.540-14:19.820 bright, shining as the sun, 14:20.460-14:25.820 We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. 14:27.200-14:33.320 Jessie Norman later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembley Stadium that night. 14:34.880-14:36.460 Yancey says, I think I know. 14:37.250-14:39.140 The world thirsts for grace. 14:39.770-14:44.720 When grace descends, the world falls silent before it. 14:47.100-14:50.860 On this, the 300th anniversary of John Newton's birth, 14:52.580-14:55.200 I say thank God for Elizabeth Newton. 14:56.700-14:59.100 Thank God for William Wilberforce. 15:00.000-15:01.820 Thank God for Isaac Watts. 15:03.120-15:08.800 Thank God for William Cooper, who wrote songs with John Newton. 15:09.740-15:12.700 Thank God for George Whitefield and John Wesley. 15:14.040-15:20.780 And for that wretch of a man, John Newton, who found grace and was transformed. 15:22.900-15:23.940 Happy birthday, John. 15:25.540-15:28.560 Happy birthday to us all when we find grace. 15:29.300-15:30.320 And it finds us. 15:31.480-15:31.880 God bless. 15:32.580-15:33.060 Catch you later. 15:35.640-15:42.119 Since grace has gone, he saved us more. 15:43.280-15:49.000 And Grace will lead me home 15:50.920-15:56.880 And Grace will lead me home 15:59.060-16:08.660 And grace will lead me home.